Max
09-02-2002, 01:34 PM
Dust-Sized Chips to Combat Bioterrorism
Mon Sep 2, 4:05 PM ET
MONDAY, Sept. 2 (HealthScoutNews) -- Dust-sized silicon chips that can rapidly detect biological and chemical agents have been developed by University of California, San Diego scientists.
The substances the chips are able to identify include those that can be dissolved in drinking water or sprayed into the air during a bioterrorist attack.
The research appears today in an advance online publication of the Oct. 1 issue of the journal Nature Materials.
The chips have "bar codes" that react to specific chemical or biological agents.
"The idea is that you can have something that's as small as a piece of dust with some intelligence built into it, so that it could be inconspicuously stuck to paint on a wall or to the side of a truck or dispersed into a cloud of gas to detect toxic chemicals or biological materials," says researcher Michael J. Sailor, a professor of chemistry and biochemistry at UCSD.
"When the dust recognizes what kinds of chemicals or biological agents are present, that information can be read like a series of bar codes by a laser that's similar to a grocery store scanner to tell us if the cloud that's coming toward us is filled with anthrax bacteria or if the tank of drinking water into which we've sprinkled the dust is toxic," Sailor says.
The chips also have many potential commercial uses in research and medicine, the UCSD scientists say. They include biochemical assays, screening chemicals for potential new drugs, or testing for toxic materials.
More information
For more on bioterrorism preparedness, visit this Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Web site.
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"Experience teaches that, of all the emotions, fear stands alone in its power to move us, or to capture us in its grip forever. In a world of terrors, there is nothing more fearsome that the unknown...especially when what is unknown is ourselves." Outer Limits(Fear Itself)
Mon Sep 2, 4:05 PM ET
MONDAY, Sept. 2 (HealthScoutNews) -- Dust-sized silicon chips that can rapidly detect biological and chemical agents have been developed by University of California, San Diego scientists.
The substances the chips are able to identify include those that can be dissolved in drinking water or sprayed into the air during a bioterrorist attack.
The research appears today in an advance online publication of the Oct. 1 issue of the journal Nature Materials.
The chips have "bar codes" that react to specific chemical or biological agents.
"The idea is that you can have something that's as small as a piece of dust with some intelligence built into it, so that it could be inconspicuously stuck to paint on a wall or to the side of a truck or dispersed into a cloud of gas to detect toxic chemicals or biological materials," says researcher Michael J. Sailor, a professor of chemistry and biochemistry at UCSD.
"When the dust recognizes what kinds of chemicals or biological agents are present, that information can be read like a series of bar codes by a laser that's similar to a grocery store scanner to tell us if the cloud that's coming toward us is filled with anthrax bacteria or if the tank of drinking water into which we've sprinkled the dust is toxic," Sailor says.
The chips also have many potential commercial uses in research and medicine, the UCSD scientists say. They include biochemical assays, screening chemicals for potential new drugs, or testing for toxic materials.
More information
For more on bioterrorism preparedness, visit this Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Web site.
==============================
"Experience teaches that, of all the emotions, fear stands alone in its power to move us, or to capture us in its grip forever. In a world of terrors, there is nothing more fearsome that the unknown...especially when what is unknown is ourselves." Outer Limits(Fear Itself)